LFF TOP 20
James DC's list of the best genre and 'cult' films, still to be shown up to October 18th, in this year's London Film Festival (in no particular order) :
1) THE LOBSTER
Tuesday 13th, 6pm & 6.30pm @ Vue West End
Thursday 15th, 6.15pm @ Ritzy
All-star absurdist fantasy, set in a future dystopia, involving animal transformations and other witty weirdness, from director Yorgos Lanthimos, of Dogtooth and Alps fame.
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2) OLD CZECH LEGENDS
Saturday 17th, 3.45pm @ NFT2
Iconic, stunning masterpieces of stop-frame animation from Czech legend Jiří Trnka.
3) THE SURVIVALIST
Wednesday 14th, 9pm @ Vue Islington
Atmospheric, authentic slow-burner about an Irish man trying to survive in the woods, after a future apocalypse.
4) THE BRAND NEW TESTAMENT
Friday 16th, 9pm @ Cineworld Haymarket
Saturday 17th, 12.45pm @Cine Lumiere
From director Jaco Van Dormael, who made the wonderful Toto the Hero (1991), this stars Catherine Deneuve in a bizarre fantasy which satirises religion.
5) GREEN ROOM
Wednesday 14th, 8.45pm @ Hackney Picturehouse
Thursday 15th, 8.45pm @ Picturehouse Central
Punky, violent, intense murder thriller, starring Patrick Stewart.
6) VICTORIA
Friday 16th, 6.10pm @ Curzon Mayfair
Saturday 17th, 12.30pm @Curzon Soho
Ultra-stylish, visionary, suspenseful crime thriller from Germany.
7) THE WITCH
Wednesday 14th, 12.30pm @ Vue West End
Unsettling horror drama, set during the infamous witch trials of 17th century America.
8) HOMESICK
Tuesday 13th, 1.15pm @ NFT3
Friday 16th, 9.15pm @ Picturehouse Central
Claustrophobic urban chiller, reminiscent of Roman Polanski's horror films.
9) YAKUZA APOCALYPSE
Thursday 15th, 9pm @ Rich Mix
Sunday 18th, 8.45pm @ Picturehouse Central
Deranged genre hybrid, featuring vampire gangsters, from the cult Japanese director Takashi Miike.
10) RATTLE THE CAGE
Saturday 17th, 12.30pm @ Vue West End
Sunday 18th, 3pm @ Cineworld Haymarket
Inventive and stylish thriller from the Middle East, set in the confines of a jail.
11) BLACK MASS
Friday 16th, 9pm @ Vue Islington
Johnny Depp is almost unrecognisable as a ruthless Irish gangster who becomes an informant for the FBI, in this crime thriller from director Scott Cooper, of Crazy Heart (2009) fame.
12)
SCHNEIDER VS. BAX
Saturday 17th, 1.15pm @ NFT2
An absolutely barnstorming, surreal comedy thriller, suspenseful and hilarious in equal measure.
13) DESIERTO
Wednesday 14th, 6pm & 6.30pm @ Vue West End
Thursday 15th, 2.45pm @ Odeon Leicester Square
Sunday 18th, 1pm @ Curzon Mayfair
Jonás Cuarón (son of the more famous Alfonso Cuarón, director of Gravity) creates a taut, edge-of-the-seat thriller, concerning immigration and racism, set in the borderlands of Mexico.
14) ONE FLOOR BELOW
Wednesday 14th, 12.45pm @ NFT2
Gripping, low-key Romanian thriller, involving a possible murder.
15) 11 MINUTES
Wednesday 14th, 6.30pm @ Hackney Picturehouse
From legendary Polish director Jerzy Skolimowski comes a strange, fragmentary story involving multiple characters and stunning set-pieces.
16) THE ASSASSIN
Tuesday 13th, 12pm @ Vue West End
Friday 16th, 6.15pm @ Cine Lumiere
Hao Hsiao Hsien's martial arts spectacular, set in 9th century China, won the Best Director award at this year's Cannes Film Festival.
17) FLAPPING IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE
Saturday 17th, 6.15pm @ Ritzy
Sunday 18th, 6.15pm @ Curzon Soho
Magical realism meets abstract horror in this odd, affecting drama revolving around teenage pregnancy.
18) GOLD COAST
Tuesday 13th, 6.30pm @ Vue Islington
Thursday 15th, 12pm @ Vue West End
Redolent of Werner Herzog's surreal epics of colonial adventure set in far-off lands, this is a dreamlike, historical drama.
19) UNDER ELECTRIC CLOUDS
Wednesday 14th, 6pm @ Curzon Mayfair
Friday 16th, 6pm @ Curzon Soho
The latest from Aleksei German Jr. (co-director of the awesome Hard to be a God, shown at last year's LFF), this blends reality and fantasy in a dark, curious story set in a Russia of the near future.
20) VARIETY
Sunday 18th, 2pm @ NFT1
E.A. Dupont's German Expressionist-inflected silent masterpiece tells the story of a circus acrobat whose life spirals out of control after an adulterous affair. Don't miss this wonderful restoration.
https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/lff/Online/
Sublime Cinema
DREDD DELIVERS!
Dredd (Pete Travis, 2012)
Out now on DVD and Blu-ray, in both 3D and standard formats.
Finally you can wipe the traumatic memory of the grotesque travesty that was Judge Dredd (Danny Cannon, 1995) from your mind. This Dredd makes a mockery of that ramshackle disaster which was an epic mismatch of stunted, floundering ideas, cobbled together from the ill-informed and unwavering uber-ego of Sylvester Stallone and the wafer-thin, anodyne pop-video stylings of Danny Cannon.
Dredd is directed by Pete Travis, director, previously, of the take-it-or-leave-it political thrillers Endgame (2009) and Vantage Point (2008), but whose hitherto stand-out film was the gritty and realistic TV play Omagh from 2004, detailing the infamous 1984 IRA terrorist bombing.
Inappropriate credentials, you might think, for a science fiction action film based on a cult comic book character, but - as with the increasing influx of mainstream drama directors coming in to helm each summer's blockbuster superhero movies - Travis' experience of essaying solidly drawn characters from a more realistic background stands him in good stead for this down to earth and grimy version of Judge Dredd. The well respected writer Alex Garland wrote the screenplay, as well as co-producing and having a major (uncredited) influence on the editing, and on set. Garland is reasonably well versed in the staples of science fiction, having written the screenplays for director Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002) and (the albeit over-rated) Sunshine (2007), amongst others. The producers avowedly set out to stay faithful to the comic's themes, characters and over-all concept, which is admirable in itself.
Firstly, for those of you who have been incarcerated inside an Iso-Cube for the last 36 years - what follows is a primer to the legendary character on which the film, Dredd, is based:
Judge Dredd rapidly became the flagship strip in the revolutionary science fiction comic book anthology, 2000AD, launched onto an unsuspecting public in 1977. 2000AD was a radical leap from what had gone before in British comics and was spearheaded by comics genius, writer and editor Pat Mills, who was the guiding force behind it, but also Judge Dredd's genesis, along with regular writer John Wagner and Spanish artist Carlos Ezquerra. Judge Dredd has since become as iconic to comic strip aficionado's as Batman or Dan Dare, and still continues to thrill readers every week in 2000AD, one of the last home-grown British comics, in an American dominated marketplace.
Dredd is a hardcore, no-nonsense cop of the late 21st century, and is fascistic judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one. He keeps law and order, along with the other Judges, under the aegis of a totalitarian authority, in Mega City One, a vast conurbation on the East Coast of the United States, after a limited nuclear war has devastated parts of America, along with much of the rest of the planet. Within this classic post-apocalyptic landscape, Dredd is, to a certain extent, a cypher to facilitate the bizarre, but recognisably human stories of the inhabitants of the future city, which often dominate the comics plots. The Dredd strip is also a potent vehicle for satire, and many contemporaneous socio-political concerns have been commented upon through the seemingly innocent lens of the strip, over the last four decades. Many wonderful and multi-levelled book-length narratives have evolved over the years, from classics such as The Cursed Earth to The Apocalypse War, to name but a few. Judge Dredd, and it's many offshoot strips, paints a weird and striking mythology of a ravaged, but also technologically driven, future world - as worth its salt as many a similarly themed, classic SF novel or film.
The first screen incarnation of this classic character surfaced in 1995, directed by Danny Cannon, and starring Sylvester Stallone in the main title roll. It met with a howl of disapproval from the dedicated fans, and didn't do much better with the critics, either. It was reportedly troubled by creative wrangles between the star Stallone, and it's director Cannon, and tried to meld lightweight comedic elements with a half-serious attempt at an SF action thriller, leading to - sometimes - embarrassing results. It did, however, contain some good art/production design, special effects, and a few good scenes, but that's about it for this slightly camp and bloodless version of the future lawman. Stallone had already starred in a similarly themed science fiction film, Demolition Man - also about a hard-nosed cop in a future totalitarian society - two years before, which didn't help matters. Ultimately Cannon's Judge Dredd felt like a hackneyed repetition of that movie, as well as a pinch from Paul Verhoeven's excellent Robocop of 1987 (itself influenced by the Judge Dredd comic strip).
The fact that the original film was so awful perhaps gave the producers a fortuitous kind of gauge by which they could juxtapose and measure the quality of their new adaptation, as well as ascertaining the pratfalls to avoid.
Dredd has - ostensibly - the same plot as last years martial arts action thriller The Raid, but trumps that entertaining, but rather shallow film, in terms of originality, artistry and streamlined direction, as well as - mercifully - not being as over the top and cartoonish. Some have criticised Dredd for plagiarising the plot of The Raid, when in actual fact Dredd's screenplay was written and developed first!
The narrative arc of the new Dredd is pared down, effective and instantly draws you in. The producers eschew a complicated origin or back story and hit the road, running. In some ways they have relied on an absorption of some of the older film's basic story elements into the wider zeitgeist (as is the case with many modern cinematic reboots) even if the general audience may not be consciously aware of such cultural osmosis.
The film starts as it means to go on, with Dredd chasing criminal 'perps' on his 'Lawmaster' motorbike in a brilliantly choreographed and kinetic chase sequence, through dilapidated, grey freeways and flyovers. Unlike many films, there are no laborious, slow set-ups for the character of Dredd, or the milieu in which he is set - this quick-fire opening sequence is refreshing and augers well for the rest of the film.
The minimalistic, tight plot centres around a drug cartel, headed by the ruthless female leader Ma Ma (played with sinister relish by Lena Headey), which sells a new addictive, black-market drug called Slo-Mo, in which the ingester's perceptions are slowed down to just 1% of normal time. Ma Ma and her uber-violent cronies have commandeered one of the ubiquitous City Blocks of the city, a 200 storey high rise, which Dredd and his rookie sidekick, Cassandra Anderson, are called to, in order to investigate what they think is a routine murder. However, they soon discover Ma Ma's nest of vipers and an all-out battle ensues, with Dredd and Anderson getting trapped inside the huge tower block, when Ma Ma takes over the building's security system and inaugurates a lockdown.
What ensues is basically a grim cat and mouse game, with Dredd and Anderson escorting one of the arrested murderers through a labyrinthine maze of gloomy rooms and corridors, evading capture, whilst ambitiously seeking a way to arrest or eliminate Ma Ma and her gang and then make their escape.
What is so striking about Dredd is the way in which it gives little quarter to the usual Hollywood-style story concessions and blockbuster cliche's; there is no fluff, in terms of, say, a romantic sub-plot, or irrelevant, tertiary characters (as is so painfully obvious in Cannon's '95 Judge Dredd). This Dredd unapologetically borrows plot elements and structure from seminal jeopardy action thrillers like Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976) and Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988), but creates a much more fatalistic atmosphere, even more claustrophobic and hard-bitten than those canonical classics. The minimalistic plot is fast paced, with the lean dialogue, dark set-pieces and sudden, gritty violence giving Dredd a Noir-ish ambiance to proceedings - in fact, along with the existential, nihilistic undertones and dystopian tropes, Dredd could be said to embody what I call Apocalypse Noir (no pun intended). In one scene, the Chief Judge informs Dredd that he must take the rookie Anderson with him on patrol, and says "chuck her in at the deep end" to which he replies "it's all the deep end!"
Dredd favorably reminds one of other cult, dystopian science fiction films like The Omega Man (Boris Sagal, 1971), the Mad Max films (George Miller, 1979 - 1985) and The Last Battle (Luc Besson, 1983) to name a few, whilst adding new riffs to such classic themes. The original Judge Dredd comic strip was inspired by, but also influenced, such dark future-scenario's in film and fiction, and this new manifestation adds another fascinating layer to the over-all mix. The creators of Dredd were part-inspired by the fantastic SF imagery of 70's comic magazines like Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal, as well as now-legendary SF writers like Philip K Dick and - especially - the Anglo-Americanised, dystopic worlds of JG Ballard. His superb novel High Rise, essaying themes of urban entropy, technological fetishism, convulsive violence and mass psychosis, was highly influential to the look and feel of Mega City One, with its compacted urban environment and the bizarre, unhinged citizens who reside within its skyscrapers. In many ways this new cinematic Dredd is a skeleton version of High Rise, having coming full circle, back to it's seminal ancestry.
Dredd aficionado's will be overjoyed by the film's faithfulness to the source material, with Karl Urban playing Joe Dredd down to a tee, and keeping to the strict rule of not once taking off his helmet. In 36 years of comics, we have never seen Judge Dredd's face - he literally epitomises the faceless, totalitarian boot of the law. Urban get's the character just right, in a difficult role which allows only the bottom half of his face to express emotion and nuance. He interprets Dredd's voice perfectly, as low-toned, slightly deep and guttural; redolent of 70's era Clint Eastwood (again bringing the character full circle, Dirty Harry being one of the original templates for Dredd), but thankfully, not wince-inducingly pompous like Christian Bale's voice was for Batman. Most importantly, as does Dredd in the comics, he keeps his bottom lip well and truly downturned throughout the whole film! Urban projects a world weary, cynical, but tough and athletic Dredd, making Stallone's previous incarnation seem like Daffy Duck in a gimp suit.
The violence enacted by Urban's Dredd is also faithful to the comic. In many ways the film has some very dark and visceral overtones. When Dredd corners, beats up and headbutts the main murder suspect, it is bone-crunchingly real - none of this pathetic, comical pseudo-violence which besets so many modern teenage blockbusters. As with the comics, Dredd is a lean, mean killing machine, once a perp has broken the law and overstepped the mark. The producers of the film were adamant that this Dredd would be relatively hard-hitting, and made for an adult audience, hence the - nowadays rare - 18 certificate. If for nothing else, they should be commended for taking such an audience-demographic risk, in order to give integrity to the adaptation.
Olivia Thirlby, as Cassandra Anderson, is the more humane and emotional counterpoint to the rock-hard attitude of Judge Dredd, playing her with just the right balance of empathy and street-sav. Anderson is also the focal point for some of the film's stand-out sequences, for Anderson is one of the many mutants in the post-apocalyptic, post-irradiated world of Dredd, possessing powerful psychic powers. In one gripping scene, Anderson engages in a violent battle of wits with one of Ma Ma's henchmen, via a Spock-type virtual mind-meld. The CGI special effects are - rarely for fantasy blockbusters - not overdone; they are subtly rendered and feel ostensibly 'real' within the context of the internal logic of the story.
However, the spectacular slow motion action sequences, seen from the Slo-Mo drug users viewpoints, are the most outstanding, especially when seen in 3D. I don't think I have seen 3D utilised so effectively before, within a mainstream movie. In one sequence, we see Dredd and Anderson kick open a drug den to shoot the perps dead. As a bullet slowly tracks across the screen, we see it slice through someone's cheek, in minute, slowed down detail, the macro-sharp particles of viscera and blood glistening in the light. This psychedelic treatment simultaneously aestheticises and amplifies the violence, rendering it at once shocking and beautiful. For my mind, this and the other 3D Slo-Mo scenes, are as radical in their hallucinogenic affect as such films as 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) and Enter The Void (Gasper Noe, 2009) were, in their time. Andrew Dominick's (great) film Killing Them Softly, also from last year, has a very similar sequence of slow-bullet-death, but it feels weak and pedestrian in comparison to Dredd's far out, cosmic effects.
In general, the directors vision is actualised remarkably well, being a combination of gritty, realistic props and imagery, and inventively framed, atmospheric cinematography. Dredd may not be that deep in terms of storytelling and thematic content, but that's not what it was created for. It does what it says on the tin, and gives the fans of the comic what they have been impatiently waiting for, since the awful monstrosity of the '95 movie.
Any negative criticism's are minor. The filmmakers have opted for a much more realistic looking milieu for Dredd, as opposed to the more outlandish stylings of the comic strip, with its weird and wonderful robots, hover vehicles, eccentric anarcho-punks, grotesque mutants, and gleaming, futuristic City Blocks and flyovers. This is partly due to the story's pared down aspects, but probably budget restraints, too. I do prefer the more authentic context of this new Dredd, but a few odd details, set within its supposed future world, are jarring. In one montage we get to see interiors of some of the tower block apartments, containing incongruous 70's style curtains and furnishings, with a later scene showing a woman pushing a very obvious 80's style baby-buggy! And in the aforementioned opening chase sequence, the criminals getaway vehicle looks very much like a 70's era VW van. This must have been a conscious choice to integrate a few retro elements into the run-down future context, but it just doesn't sit well with the rest of the film, and seems anachronistic. Surely society would have technologically developed a bit more than this, decades hence, even accounting for a limited nuclear war.
Similarly, Dredd's costume is a more combat friendly, utilitarian translation of the stylish, but unwieldy comic book version, with its cumbersome eagle epaulette and bulky knee pads. The new costume just about works, as does Dredd's sleeker and more ergonomic bike, the Lawmaster, even though they are less exciting to look at. Taking into account the more realistic setting of this new Dredd, some of the props and visual elements of the '95 Judge Dredd are much more in keeping with the comic strip, and could have worked well here, in muted form, by decidedly beefing up the futuristic, science fictional ambiance. If some select details of the 95 film's mise en scene could have been transposed to this new film, it would have been pitch-perfect, but ultimately, these are minor quibbles, considering the over-all success of this new iteration.
Unfortunately, the general public didn't really connect with Dredd, for a variety of purported reasons. The worldwide box office fell quite short of the estimated $45 million budget, which jeopardises the chances of any sequels (screenwriter Garland mooted further films featuring classic Dredd enemies like Chopper and Judge Death). Perhaps the memory of the Stallone Judge Dredd still floated in the backs of their minds, or conversely, for the younger adults, they weren't clued up enough on the character of Dredd to make an informed decision. There is also the increasing overkill of comic book and superhero based films, and Dredd may have been swamped by an oversaturated market, competing also with other science fiction films like the Total Recall remake, which was released around the same time. Ultimately, I think the general audience just weren't prepared to give this original and ingenious film a punt, for whatever reason. But I hope they will belatedly give it a second chance on DVD and Blu-Ray, so that the film makes it's budget back and all we Dredd fans can look forward to a possible sequel!
The critics were mostly favourable, but unfortunately there was a bit of narrow minded criticism levelled at the film, for confused reasons. Quite a few of the negative reviews said it had failed to incorporate a lot of the comic strips satirical, or witty, elements. This is a misjudgement of the strips multifaceted complexity; it can be, from one week to the next, a hard-hitting SF action romp, a veiled, humorous attack on society's current foibles, a continuing, serious human drama - or a combination of all three. However, there is only so much that can be explored in a 95 minute film, and as the Stallone Dredd took the humour route - with disastrous results - it is understandable that the producers of this version wanted a more serious angle. Plus there are always possible sequels in which to manifest the strips other underlying concerns - this Dredd had to be a tub-thumping mission statement of sorts.
The extras of the DVD package of Dredd are fun and informative, with a feature on the visual effects of the film, and a documentary on the history of Dredd, as well as various other shorter featurettes.
Dredd is a turbo-charged, sleek, thrill-ride on the freeway of a (possible) dystopian future, and is all the better for being a taut, muscular action movie, augmented by some witty sidelines and engaging, moody characteristics. It is one of the most entertaining and artistically satisfying science fiction films of the last twenty-odd years. Give it half a chance, and I predict that it will be considered a cult classic over the next few years.
Out now on DVD and Blu-ray, in both 3D and standard formats.
Finally you can wipe the traumatic memory of the grotesque travesty that was Judge Dredd (Danny Cannon, 1995) from your mind. This Dredd makes a mockery of that ramshackle disaster which was an epic mismatch of stunted, floundering ideas, cobbled together from the ill-informed and unwavering uber-ego of Sylvester Stallone and the wafer-thin, anodyne pop-video stylings of Danny Cannon.
Dredd is directed by Pete Travis, director, previously, of the take-it-or-leave-it political thrillers Endgame (2009) and Vantage Point (2008), but whose hitherto stand-out film was the gritty and realistic TV play Omagh from 2004, detailing the infamous 1984 IRA terrorist bombing.
Inappropriate credentials, you might think, for a science fiction action film based on a cult comic book character, but - as with the increasing influx of mainstream drama directors coming in to helm each summer's blockbuster superhero movies - Travis' experience of essaying solidly drawn characters from a more realistic background stands him in good stead for this down to earth and grimy version of Judge Dredd. The well respected writer Alex Garland wrote the screenplay, as well as co-producing and having a major (uncredited) influence on the editing, and on set. Garland is reasonably well versed in the staples of science fiction, having written the screenplays for director Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later (2002) and (the albeit over-rated) Sunshine (2007), amongst others. The producers avowedly set out to stay faithful to the comic's themes, characters and over-all concept, which is admirable in itself.
Firstly, for those of you who have been incarcerated inside an Iso-Cube for the last 36 years - what follows is a primer to the legendary character on which the film, Dredd, is based:
Judge Dredd rapidly became the flagship strip in the revolutionary science fiction comic book anthology, 2000AD, launched onto an unsuspecting public in 1977. 2000AD was a radical leap from what had gone before in British comics and was spearheaded by comics genius, writer and editor Pat Mills, who was the guiding force behind it, but also Judge Dredd's genesis, along with regular writer John Wagner and Spanish artist Carlos Ezquerra. Judge Dredd has since become as iconic to comic strip aficionado's as Batman or Dan Dare, and still continues to thrill readers every week in 2000AD, one of the last home-grown British comics, in an American dominated marketplace.
Dredd is a hardcore, no-nonsense cop of the late 21st century, and is fascistic judge, jury and executioner all rolled into one. He keeps law and order, along with the other Judges, under the aegis of a totalitarian authority, in Mega City One, a vast conurbation on the East Coast of the United States, after a limited nuclear war has devastated parts of America, along with much of the rest of the planet. Within this classic post-apocalyptic landscape, Dredd is, to a certain extent, a cypher to facilitate the bizarre, but recognisably human stories of the inhabitants of the future city, which often dominate the comics plots. The Dredd strip is also a potent vehicle for satire, and many contemporaneous socio-political concerns have been commented upon through the seemingly innocent lens of the strip, over the last four decades. Many wonderful and multi-levelled book-length narratives have evolved over the years, from classics such as The Cursed Earth to The Apocalypse War, to name but a few. Judge Dredd, and it's many offshoot strips, paints a weird and striking mythology of a ravaged, but also technologically driven, future world - as worth its salt as many a similarly themed, classic SF novel or film.
The first screen incarnation of this classic character surfaced in 1995, directed by Danny Cannon, and starring Sylvester Stallone in the main title roll. It met with a howl of disapproval from the dedicated fans, and didn't do much better with the critics, either. It was reportedly troubled by creative wrangles between the star Stallone, and it's director Cannon, and tried to meld lightweight comedic elements with a half-serious attempt at an SF action thriller, leading to - sometimes - embarrassing results. It did, however, contain some good art/production design, special effects, and a few good scenes, but that's about it for this slightly camp and bloodless version of the future lawman. Stallone had already starred in a similarly themed science fiction film, Demolition Man - also about a hard-nosed cop in a future totalitarian society - two years before, which didn't help matters. Ultimately Cannon's Judge Dredd felt like a hackneyed repetition of that movie, as well as a pinch from Paul Verhoeven's excellent Robocop of 1987 (itself influenced by the Judge Dredd comic strip).
The fact that the original film was so awful perhaps gave the producers a fortuitous kind of gauge by which they could juxtapose and measure the quality of their new adaptation, as well as ascertaining the pratfalls to avoid.
Dredd has - ostensibly - the same plot as last years martial arts action thriller The Raid, but trumps that entertaining, but rather shallow film, in terms of originality, artistry and streamlined direction, as well as - mercifully - not being as over the top and cartoonish. Some have criticised Dredd for plagiarising the plot of The Raid, when in actual fact Dredd's screenplay was written and developed first!
The narrative arc of the new Dredd is pared down, effective and instantly draws you in. The producers eschew a complicated origin or back story and hit the road, running. In some ways they have relied on an absorption of some of the older film's basic story elements into the wider zeitgeist (as is the case with many modern cinematic reboots) even if the general audience may not be consciously aware of such cultural osmosis.
The film starts as it means to go on, with Dredd chasing criminal 'perps' on his 'Lawmaster' motorbike in a brilliantly choreographed and kinetic chase sequence, through dilapidated, grey freeways and flyovers. Unlike many films, there are no laborious, slow set-ups for the character of Dredd, or the milieu in which he is set - this quick-fire opening sequence is refreshing and augers well for the rest of the film.
The minimalistic, tight plot centres around a drug cartel, headed by the ruthless female leader Ma Ma (played with sinister relish by Lena Headey), which sells a new addictive, black-market drug called Slo-Mo, in which the ingester's perceptions are slowed down to just 1% of normal time. Ma Ma and her uber-violent cronies have commandeered one of the ubiquitous City Blocks of the city, a 200 storey high rise, which Dredd and his rookie sidekick, Cassandra Anderson, are called to, in order to investigate what they think is a routine murder. However, they soon discover Ma Ma's nest of vipers and an all-out battle ensues, with Dredd and Anderson getting trapped inside the huge tower block, when Ma Ma takes over the building's security system and inaugurates a lockdown.
What ensues is basically a grim cat and mouse game, with Dredd and Anderson escorting one of the arrested murderers through a labyrinthine maze of gloomy rooms and corridors, evading capture, whilst ambitiously seeking a way to arrest or eliminate Ma Ma and her gang and then make their escape.
What is so striking about Dredd is the way in which it gives little quarter to the usual Hollywood-style story concessions and blockbuster cliche's; there is no fluff, in terms of, say, a romantic sub-plot, or irrelevant, tertiary characters (as is so painfully obvious in Cannon's '95 Judge Dredd). This Dredd unapologetically borrows plot elements and structure from seminal jeopardy action thrillers like Assault on Precinct 13 (John Carpenter, 1976) and Die Hard (John McTiernan, 1988), but creates a much more fatalistic atmosphere, even more claustrophobic and hard-bitten than those canonical classics. The minimalistic plot is fast paced, with the lean dialogue, dark set-pieces and sudden, gritty violence giving Dredd a Noir-ish ambiance to proceedings - in fact, along with the existential, nihilistic undertones and dystopian tropes, Dredd could be said to embody what I call Apocalypse Noir (no pun intended). In one scene, the Chief Judge informs Dredd that he must take the rookie Anderson with him on patrol, and says "chuck her in at the deep end" to which he replies "it's all the deep end!"
Dredd favorably reminds one of other cult, dystopian science fiction films like The Omega Man (Boris Sagal, 1971), the Mad Max films (George Miller, 1979 - 1985) and The Last Battle (Luc Besson, 1983) to name a few, whilst adding new riffs to such classic themes. The original Judge Dredd comic strip was inspired by, but also influenced, such dark future-scenario's in film and fiction, and this new manifestation adds another fascinating layer to the over-all mix. The creators of Dredd were part-inspired by the fantastic SF imagery of 70's comic magazines like Metal Hurlant/Heavy Metal, as well as now-legendary SF writers like Philip K Dick and - especially - the Anglo-Americanised, dystopic worlds of JG Ballard. His superb novel High Rise, essaying themes of urban entropy, technological fetishism, convulsive violence and mass psychosis, was highly influential to the look and feel of Mega City One, with its compacted urban environment and the bizarre, unhinged citizens who reside within its skyscrapers. In many ways this new cinematic Dredd is a skeleton version of High Rise, having coming full circle, back to it's seminal ancestry.
Dredd aficionado's will be overjoyed by the film's faithfulness to the source material, with Karl Urban playing Joe Dredd down to a tee, and keeping to the strict rule of not once taking off his helmet. In 36 years of comics, we have never seen Judge Dredd's face - he literally epitomises the faceless, totalitarian boot of the law. Urban get's the character just right, in a difficult role which allows only the bottom half of his face to express emotion and nuance. He interprets Dredd's voice perfectly, as low-toned, slightly deep and guttural; redolent of 70's era Clint Eastwood (again bringing the character full circle, Dirty Harry being one of the original templates for Dredd), but thankfully, not wince-inducingly pompous like Christian Bale's voice was for Batman. Most importantly, as does Dredd in the comics, he keeps his bottom lip well and truly downturned throughout the whole film! Urban projects a world weary, cynical, but tough and athletic Dredd, making Stallone's previous incarnation seem like Daffy Duck in a gimp suit.
The violence enacted by Urban's Dredd is also faithful to the comic. In many ways the film has some very dark and visceral overtones. When Dredd corners, beats up and headbutts the main murder suspect, it is bone-crunchingly real - none of this pathetic, comical pseudo-violence which besets so many modern teenage blockbusters. As with the comics, Dredd is a lean, mean killing machine, once a perp has broken the law and overstepped the mark. The producers of the film were adamant that this Dredd would be relatively hard-hitting, and made for an adult audience, hence the - nowadays rare - 18 certificate. If for nothing else, they should be commended for taking such an audience-demographic risk, in order to give integrity to the adaptation.
Olivia Thirlby, as Cassandra Anderson, is the more humane and emotional counterpoint to the rock-hard attitude of Judge Dredd, playing her with just the right balance of empathy and street-sav. Anderson is also the focal point for some of the film's stand-out sequences, for Anderson is one of the many mutants in the post-apocalyptic, post-irradiated world of Dredd, possessing powerful psychic powers. In one gripping scene, Anderson engages in a violent battle of wits with one of Ma Ma's henchmen, via a Spock-type virtual mind-meld. The CGI special effects are - rarely for fantasy blockbusters - not overdone; they are subtly rendered and feel ostensibly 'real' within the context of the internal logic of the story.
However, the spectacular slow motion action sequences, seen from the Slo-Mo drug users viewpoints, are the most outstanding, especially when seen in 3D. I don't think I have seen 3D utilised so effectively before, within a mainstream movie. In one sequence, we see Dredd and Anderson kick open a drug den to shoot the perps dead. As a bullet slowly tracks across the screen, we see it slice through someone's cheek, in minute, slowed down detail, the macro-sharp particles of viscera and blood glistening in the light. This psychedelic treatment simultaneously aestheticises and amplifies the violence, rendering it at once shocking and beautiful. For my mind, this and the other 3D Slo-Mo scenes, are as radical in their hallucinogenic affect as such films as 2001 : A Space Odyssey (Stanley Kubrick, 1968) and Enter The Void (Gasper Noe, 2009) were, in their time. Andrew Dominick's (great) film Killing Them Softly, also from last year, has a very similar sequence of slow-bullet-death, but it feels weak and pedestrian in comparison to Dredd's far out, cosmic effects.
In general, the directors vision is actualised remarkably well, being a combination of gritty, realistic props and imagery, and inventively framed, atmospheric cinematography. Dredd may not be that deep in terms of storytelling and thematic content, but that's not what it was created for. It does what it says on the tin, and gives the fans of the comic what they have been impatiently waiting for, since the awful monstrosity of the '95 movie.
Any negative criticism's are minor. The filmmakers have opted for a much more realistic looking milieu for Dredd, as opposed to the more outlandish stylings of the comic strip, with its weird and wonderful robots, hover vehicles, eccentric anarcho-punks, grotesque mutants, and gleaming, futuristic City Blocks and flyovers. This is partly due to the story's pared down aspects, but probably budget restraints, too. I do prefer the more authentic context of this new Dredd, but a few odd details, set within its supposed future world, are jarring. In one montage we get to see interiors of some of the tower block apartments, containing incongruous 70's style curtains and furnishings, with a later scene showing a woman pushing a very obvious 80's style baby-buggy! And in the aforementioned opening chase sequence, the criminals getaway vehicle looks very much like a 70's era VW van. This must have been a conscious choice to integrate a few retro elements into the run-down future context, but it just doesn't sit well with the rest of the film, and seems anachronistic. Surely society would have technologically developed a bit more than this, decades hence, even accounting for a limited nuclear war.
Similarly, Dredd's costume is a more combat friendly, utilitarian translation of the stylish, but unwieldy comic book version, with its cumbersome eagle epaulette and bulky knee pads. The new costume just about works, as does Dredd's sleeker and more ergonomic bike, the Lawmaster, even though they are less exciting to look at. Taking into account the more realistic setting of this new Dredd, some of the props and visual elements of the '95 Judge Dredd are much more in keeping with the comic strip, and could have worked well here, in muted form, by decidedly beefing up the futuristic, science fictional ambiance. If some select details of the 95 film's mise en scene could have been transposed to this new film, it would have been pitch-perfect, but ultimately, these are minor quibbles, considering the over-all success of this new iteration.
Unfortunately, the general public didn't really connect with Dredd, for a variety of purported reasons. The worldwide box office fell quite short of the estimated $45 million budget, which jeopardises the chances of any sequels (screenwriter Garland mooted further films featuring classic Dredd enemies like Chopper and Judge Death). Perhaps the memory of the Stallone Judge Dredd still floated in the backs of their minds, or conversely, for the younger adults, they weren't clued up enough on the character of Dredd to make an informed decision. There is also the increasing overkill of comic book and superhero based films, and Dredd may have been swamped by an oversaturated market, competing also with other science fiction films like the Total Recall remake, which was released around the same time. Ultimately, I think the general audience just weren't prepared to give this original and ingenious film a punt, for whatever reason. But I hope they will belatedly give it a second chance on DVD and Blu-Ray, so that the film makes it's budget back and all we Dredd fans can look forward to a possible sequel!
The critics were mostly favourable, but unfortunately there was a bit of narrow minded criticism levelled at the film, for confused reasons. Quite a few of the negative reviews said it had failed to incorporate a lot of the comic strips satirical, or witty, elements. This is a misjudgement of the strips multifaceted complexity; it can be, from one week to the next, a hard-hitting SF action romp, a veiled, humorous attack on society's current foibles, a continuing, serious human drama - or a combination of all three. However, there is only so much that can be explored in a 95 minute film, and as the Stallone Dredd took the humour route - with disastrous results - it is understandable that the producers of this version wanted a more serious angle. Plus there are always possible sequels in which to manifest the strips other underlying concerns - this Dredd had to be a tub-thumping mission statement of sorts.
The extras of the DVD package of Dredd are fun and informative, with a feature on the visual effects of the film, and a documentary on the history of Dredd, as well as various other shorter featurettes.
Dredd is a turbo-charged, sleek, thrill-ride on the freeway of a (possible) dystopian future, and is all the better for being a taut, muscular action movie, augmented by some witty sidelines and engaging, moody characteristics. It is one of the most entertaining and artistically satisfying science fiction films of the last twenty-odd years. Give it half a chance, and I predict that it will be considered a cult classic over the next few years.